Children
Author(s): Ashwin Kumar and Jessy P*
Abstract
Flavor is the sensory impression of food or other substances and is determined primarily by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat, as well as temperature and texture, are also important to the overall gestalt of flavor perception. The flavor of the food, as such, can be altered with natural or artificial flavorings which affect these senses. The aim of the study is to assess the preference of children towards flavoured materials and armamentarium used in Pediatric dentistry. The study was carried out in the Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Chennai, India. Sixty children reporting to the OP along with their parents, with an informed consent formed the sample for this study. Physical demonstration of flavored and unflavored materials to the participants was done. Each item preference was marked. The obtained data was entered in excel spreadsheet and analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0.Chi square test was performed and Level of significance was set at p<0.05.The result proved that the children's preference was more towards the flavoured materials and armamentarium compared to unflavoured materials with the exception of alginate where most of them preferred unflavoured with the statistical significant difference p<0.05. Within the limits of the current study, it can be concluded that the preference towards the flavoured dental armamentarium is maximum where alginate on exception where unflavoured materials are preferred due to the gag reflex that the patients naturally have. Further extensive research on a wider variety of flavoured dental materials can be done on a larger population. As the literature says flavours are directly proportional to emotions of a child ,it can be effectively adjunct in managing behaviour of a child.